Montessori Preschool at Home

FREE Planning Charts to create a Montessori Style Preschool at Home

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If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I want to create a great learning experience for my preschooler and that I’ve been reading books on child development and ways to incorporate games and crafts into a type of preschool at home.

A wise Godly friend of mine who has six children and has homeschooled from four to fifteen years of age gave me some smart advice. There are so many curriculm out there and you can easily spend a fortune on teaching tools and materials, but what you must keep in mind is “what works for you” and “what works for your child”. She asked me to think about “what do I get excited about?” and “what does my son get excited about?” If you’ve made the decision to keep your little one at home but don’t want them to miss out on what others their age might be learning in preschool you may want to incorporate some of the ideas I’ll be sharing here.

I’ve been reading an excellent book on Preschooler Education titled “How to Raise an Amazing Child – The Montessori Way” by Tim Seldin. From this book I’ve been inspired to restructure our alphabet study and categorize our activities around the “areas for learning”. It has helped me seek more ways to reinforce our alphabet study as well as explore new areas for learning. I think I was intuitively using many of these principles in our activities, but seeing them listed helps me feel a bit more confident about feeling like I’ve touched on everything. I’m so excited to implement what I’ve what I’ve learned from this book.

Montessori Sensitive Periods

Montessori Preschool

I’ve added my thoughts on the details of each learning area as a part of the description. The Learning Areas include:

Each of these areas has a co-relating “sensitive period” – meaning a certain age range where the child is most open to learning about that type area. For instance, movement is most important from birth to one year. However, one can easily discern that movement is something our children spend most of their lives learning – especially if they enroll in a sport or if you consider how important gross and fine motor skill training is for preschoolers.

I’ve attached a powerpoint slide I plan to use to remind me of the key areas for learning and I plan to use a ten drawer storage cart to hep me stay organized. I used a rainbow-colored cart, but you can shop Amazon and pick a style that goes with your home decor. This is an affiliate link, your support helps me keep my blog online – thank you!

I labeled each drawer with a key learning area and then placed items in the drawer to help us stay on task. Ideally we would do two or three activities each day before nap time leaving one day open to run errands or meet at MOPS or any other activity.

labels

Organized preschool drawers

If you are looking for inspiration for fun things to do with your preschooler you may want to follow me on Pinterest (button on my sidebar)- I have a whole section on Montessori learning as well as a section on crafts and games for little ones.

As far as planning goes, I’m going to pick the ten activities for the week but I’ll let my son choose the activities that we will do each day (as long as they are not too repetitive) to follow the Montessori method of letting the child lead (of course, it is guided leading). I plan to build in plenty of time for free play too since I want to encourage curiosity and foster an environment for learning and play. From all the materials I’ve read, the most important thing about this young age is that as a mom I spend intentional time with my boys. I do not think the focus should be on academics as much as it should be focused on creating a love for learning in my children. I’ve attached a sample for the week that is subject to change as we progress.

A picture of the drawers filled with some goodies for the week.

Letter “R” drawer contents

Another important point from the book is the reminder that children learn at their own pace. The Montessori method encourages parents to observe their children as they play and learn. This will help you assess how your child is doing and you can make adjustments along the way. Every child is different and it’s important to keep that in mind as I plan my activities. After a few weeks of implementing our Alphabet study this way, I’ll assess how my son is doing and see if there are things that I might need to simplify or make more complex so that I can follow his natural bent of assimilating information.

I’ve also attached the labels I’ve created for our structured learning, you are welcome to download them as well as a planning sheet for each week. Just click on the images in this post to print a PDF version of any file straight from your home computer. I hope these are a blessing to you and that you’ll join us in our Preschool Alphabet Study here at Happy and Blessed Home.

I fill the drawers only once per week with about ten activities. We spend anywhere from five minutes to fifteen minutes per activity. This leads to about fifteen to forty-five minutes of planned activity per day.

New Readers

I’ve seen a tremendous increase in new subscribers and if you are a new subscriber – welcome to Happy and Blessed Home! I’m so glad you’re here and below I’ve listed a few links that you may want to review to help you become a bit more familiar with some of the resources on my blog:

Lately I’ve been posting about twice a week (sometimes three times) and my posts have mainly been focusing on enriching preschooler activities using games and printables. I also publish Family Fun Friday every week. My boys and I love to play and have fun but I’m a parent who also wants to understand the “why” behind certain crafts, sensory bins, and educational toys. So I’ve been reading books – and I blog about what I learn. If I can, I try to develop tools that help me implement what I’ve learned, and if possible, I create printables that others can use, then I share those with you, my readers.

Often, for your convenience, I’ll include affiliate links to things like Amazon or other sellers. I make a tiny commission, but my hope is that you’ll become a fan and want to support my blogging by using these links when you can. If you have time, you can also help me grow my blog by pinning the posts you like on PINTEREST or by sharing on other social media like Facebook. This is really important as word of mouth is one of the biggest ways that my blog grows.

If you enjoy free printables, crafts and games for little ones, ideas for family fun and encouraging posts for moms, sign up and have Happy and Blessed Home delivered to your inbox. Simply enter your e-mail address here:

Email*

First Name*

I do not spam my readers and I protect your privacy. Your e-mail address will only be used for updates from Happy and Blessed Home.

If you like these planning charts please let me know in the comments. If you like my blog please like my Facebook page at: HappyAndBlessedHome – thanks so much!

Stopping by from Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop. Thanks for linking this up! I have a 3.5 year old and although she started public school already, I like to look for fun learning activities we can do together. Thanks for sharing this great info!

Thanks for stopping by! I just want to share what we’re doing because I love finding new things to do with my little guys. By thinking about the learning areas I’m able to cook up more ideas. Don’t think of it as a checklist but more of a brainstorming tool. God bless you and your little one!
In His Grip,
Monica

I love the organization of this! I like how all the different areas are broken down too and the age ranges. Obviously those are all things that parents should naturally be doing with their children at those ages anyways, but it’s nice to have it in a chart to make sure you’re not letting any area slide through the cracks! Great post!

Amy,
Thanks so much. Your comment is such an encouragement to me. I’m a visual thinker so putting it on a chart and hanging the chart next to the activity drawers helps me brainstorm new ideas for the next letter even while we’re on this one. I hope it’s helpful to anyone who is trying to think up learning activities for their preschooler. Thanks again for your encouraging comment!
In His Grip,
Monica

Hi Monica! This is a fabulous post chock-full of helpful tools. I’m so glad you posted it to NextGen Homeschool’s What’s Working Wednesday Link-Up! It’s a valuable resources for those of us homeschooling younger ones. I love the use of the colorful drawer tower. Pretty and practical!
Renée at NextGen Homeschool

Hi, I’m Anne from Life on the Funny Farm (http://annesfunnyfarm.blogspot.com), one of the Friday Chaos co-hosts.
So glad you stopped by to link up! I loved this post and look forward to checking out more of your blog.
Have a great day…

We also are inviting all contributors to join us on our Share It Saturday Group Pinterest page as a collaborator. It is a great way to have your posts seen by new viewers! The link for the Pinterest page is on our post. Hope to see you there!

Thank you so much for sharing this on F-it Fridays over on Parko and Logi I have never heard of this process before and we are looking into home preschooling our nearly 4 year old. Your blog is SUCH a valuable resource!

Came over from Hammock Tracks! I loved seeing your thoughts and ideas on preschool. I am a former school teacher trying to avoid the workbook method when my youngest reaches preschool age! Thanks for the tips!

I like it too because it helps me brainstorm themed ideas. I’ve got a few other books I’m reading on similar topics and I hope to share some of those ideas too. Thanks for visiting. I hope you’ll keep in touch.
Thanks,
Monica

Wow, this is so inspiring. I love montessori and really want to be more intentional about home-based montessori preschool with my 3-year-old. Is the “how to raise an amazing child” book your favorite starting resource for that? Going to follow you on pinterest for more. Thanks for linking this up to monday funday!

The Montessori method is a great tool for coming up with ways to be intentional in teaching and learning in some key areas. Especially with little ones it can be helpful for moms who are looking for more than just random play. Try to think of activities, crafts, games, movement, music and sensory experiences that stimulate them to learn. I’m so glad you are following along. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

I found your blog in a round about way. I think it all began with a Pinterest link that brought me to a fabulous blog with an awesome link party. I saw your link and I’m now following with Pinterest and FB. I’m a Christian mom with several blogs.

thank you for have written this and I realize that even if my son is only 22 months , I need to start organizing something for him very soon! thanks for explaining the montessori method! glad to have stopped by came to visit your blog from the Ducks’ n row party! Ingrid

I am so happy that I found your blog on thebettermom.com link up. I have been looking for a good lesson plan for my preschoolers, and an organization tool.
You have provided both. Thanks for sharing this info.

I LOVE using the Montessori Method with my kiddos 6, 4, and 3. It has transformed our learning time at home into such a magical time for all of us. Feel free to stop my blog. I post all of our weekly activities and always offer my printables for free.

Everything you have shared is great and i just cant wait to introduce this to my little girl who is only 4 months old. You’re are the source of blessing to young parents. Young children will be able to learn the bible terms as well. I pray tha GOD will continue to bless you and gives you grea new ideas.

Thank you so much for this. I’ve been thinking and thinking about how I want to plan for our mommy preschool week. I had something like this but wasn’t sure about it. This helps me make up my mind to stick with it! I appreciate it.

Great post! I never did as much planning as you do though!I am starting up a shop called Linda’s Montessori Shop. selling all my 3,000 used books from 30 years of teaching Montessori, and later all my Montessori materials. It’s not open yet, but I have over 300 books on right now. If you sign up for e-mail messages (on the front page) i can let you know when we are launching! I thought that my Shop might be especially useful for Montessori Homeschoolers such as yourself. Thank you! Hope to see you there! http://www.LindasMontessori.com

Hi, I had just finished reading the book above when I stumbled across your blog and printables. I was so excited! I am having trouble printing when I click on the image it doesn’t find the document. I am wondering what I am doing wrong? Help!

Hi Sharee – I think the links got disconnected somehow (probably a bloggy software update). I reconnected all the links and you should be able to click on the images now and print the worksheets and labels from your home computer. Link: http://www.happyandblessedhome.com/2013/12/montessori-preschool.html and I’m sending you an e-mail. Monica

I’m very disappointed you’ve called this Montessori. What you’ve described looks like nicely structured program, but it’s very misleading to call it Montessori. There are 4 sensitive periods only, according to Dr Montessori. Movement stretches to age 6. Please do more research before putting false information out.

Hi Sarah, I just followed what was published in the book and created a system to keep track of, organize and inspire activities with my children. You may want to check out the book and send your concerns to the author. All age ranges and types of activity were from the book. Thank you for your comment. It’s always good to get varying perspectives. ~Monica